Extended CFP: V International Congress on Cultures

The call for papers for V International Congress on Cultures – What culture (s) for the 21st century? was extended until June 30.

The Congress will be held from 6 to 8 November 2019, at the University of Beira Interior, in Covilhã – Portugal, and has the partnership of the project Cultures Past & Present – Memories, cultures and identities: how the past weights on the presente-day intercultural relations in Mozambique and Portugal?

Proposals for communication which fall within the scope of the following thematic working groups will be welcomed:

  • Communicate Culture
  • European Capitals of Culture Project (CEC)
  • Culture and artistic expressions
  • Culture, fashion, and lifestyles
  • Modalities of consumption in contemporary culture
  • Culture, environment, and development
  • Culture and lusophony
  • Culture, gender, and sexuality
  • Culture savings and creative economies
  • Culture, democracy, and citizenship
  • Cultures, networks, and digitalities
  • Policies and Management of culture and communication
  • University, Knowledge, and Culture

Communication proposals may be submitted in Portuguese, English or French.

More information available on the congress website.

“Lusophony as a Postcolonial View” seminar

The Permanent Seminar on Postcolonial Studies on “Lusophony as a Postcolonial View: Colonial Rancidity or Intercultural Possibility” will be held on June 17 at 2.30 pm in the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Minho, with the researcher Vítor de Sousa.

According to the CECS researcher, “Lusophony is a word that emerges in the 1950s, referring to the term «francophonie». Lusophone must have been invented before, by analogy with the French «francophone», which dates back to 1949 ( …). Lusophony is a word that emerges in the reference periodization in 1950”.

“In my opinion, unlike ‘portugalidade’, which is markedly colonial, the word was even coined between the 50s and 60s of the twentieth century, in the midst of the Estado Novo. Lusofonia is a postcolonial concept that linking one term to the other is a counter-claim (Sousa, 2014, 2015, 2017), since Lusofonia cannot be considered, under any circumstance, as ‘portugalidade’ due to its association with the slogan «Portugal do Minho a Timor»”, explains Vítor de Sousa.

“Lusophony does, however, contain some cleavages and, despite stating that everything has already been written, but only putting it into practice (Real, 2012), the term is not consensual”, says the researcher, warning that that “failure to consider the differences between colonial histories and colonization processes can lead to imposing upon one people the postcolonial narrative of another, thus making these people even more invisible”.

The Permanent Seminary of Postcolonial Studies seeks to establish a dialogue with the past, not only in a textual and theoretical sense but also by calling and summoning real voices that help to dialogue with colonial experiences and their reflection in the postcolonial time of our societies globally. Based on an intercultural dynamic, it results from a partnership between the CECS, the Master of Sociology of the University of Minho and the EXCHANGE Project.

“The Portuguese Dictatorship: Testimony of Political Prisoners in Film 48”

On June 6, at 11:45 am, the researcher Isabel Macedo will minister the session “The Portuguese dictatorship. Testimony of political prisoners in the film 48” at the Carlos Amarante School, in Braga. The students will be presented with an excerpt from the film 48, by Susana de Sousa Dias, followed by a space for discussion.


The activity is a joint action of the Virtual Museum of Lusophone and the Carlos Amarante Schools Group, within the framework of the National Cinema Plan and the Scientifically Probable Project, to which CECS has associated.